Companies that promote their drugs too heavily may soon face heavy fines and criminal lawsuits. These include pharmaceutical companies in particular, who through their drugs make a misleading claim to improve the size and shape of a penis, the appearance and structure of the breast or the whiteness. Health Ministry officials gave this information.
He said that the ministry has constituted a committee to recommend changes in the existing laws. The official said pharmaceutical companies give false information about the effectiveness and safety of their drugs through misleading advertisements, which puts people's health at risk. He said that to prevent such companies from giving misleading advertisements, recommendations can be made to file criminal cases against them, to send top managers to jail and to impose heavy fines on such companies.
The Committee is considering strict punitive action against the advertisers for diseases covered in Schedule J of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945. This schedule lists diseases and diseases that no medicine can claim to cure or prevent. Cancer in the list, changes of the sex of the fetus, skin whitening, enhancement of human capacity for sexual pleasure, premature ejaculation, sexual impotence, premature whitening of hair, changes in breast appearance and structure and rejuvenating power Includes claims such as.
The official said, "There is a need to tighten the fines in the existing laws. We have to make the DMRA more effective by increasing the penalty and imprisonment provisions. ' Currently, there is a provision of 'imprisonment of up to 6 months or fine or both' for making a false claim for the first time. Thereafter, there is a provision of 'maximum imprisonment for one year or fine or both' if wrong claim is made again or any number of times.
In addition to this, existing laws only prohibit wrong claims related to health in newspapers, while there are no provisions to deal with the problem of false claims on TV or Internet. A source said, 'This is the era of social media and the law also needs to be changed accordingly. In such a situation, the existing laws will have to be amended. In a notification issued by the Health Ministry on 10 December, the committee was informed about the formation of the committee.
A member of the committee said, "The provision of fine in the law right now is inadequate to prevent companies from making such misleading claims." He said that currently advertisers making exaggerated claims escape by paying a nominal fine of Rs 500. The committee, headed by Joint Health Secretary Mandeep Bhandari, met on December 13 to discuss changes in the provisions of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objective Advertising) Act, 1954.
The notice stated, "The committee will submit recommendations within three weeks of its first meeting." Members of the committee include Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), representatives of Ministry of AYUSH, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Ministry of Law and drug controllers from several states including Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka.
